16 
BULLETIN 999, II. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
weighted average of the 31 is practically the same as the weighted 
in nearly all months. 
The weighted average price of 31 farm products reached the peak 
in June ; 1920, with a price index of 246. At that time, the whole- 
sale price of "all commodities" was 276. Since May, 1920, the 
index numbers for farm prices dropped from 246 to 106. The drop 
each month was as follows: 
July 4 
August 17 
September 18 
October 16 
November , .*. 23 
December 25 
January 
February '.;. 
10 
5 
March 
6 
April 
9 
May 
6 
June 
1 
Fig. 11.— Prices of hogs, Civil War and World War periods, and wholesale prices of all commodities during 
the Civil War. Five-year average before the war is in all cases 100. During each war period hogs were 
relatively cheap for several years. Following the Civil War the price of hogs swung about the general 
price level; showing the regular cycles of over and under production. 
COMPARISON OF FARM PRICES WITH PRICES OF SOME OTHER BASIC 
COMMODITIES AND WITH FREIGHT RATES. 
The weighted average price paid to farmers for 31 farm products 
in June was 106, when the five-year average before the war is 
called 100. 
The price of copper was 88 per cent of the prewar price ; anthracite 
coal, 210 ; Pennsylvania crude oil, 154 ; Bessemer pig iron, 155. Freight 
rates for the farm products given in table VIII varied from 158 to 
231 per cent of the prewar average. Wholesale prices of "all com- 
modities ,? were 151 per cent of the prewar average. 
If prices of farm products should long remain at such unusual 
ratios to other prices and charges, the most far-reaching changes in 
agriculture would take place. The types of farming in different 
sections of the United States are largely determined by freight rates. 
Any changes in the ratio of rates to prices causes a readjustment in 
